Publication Order of Imperial Radch Books

Ann Leckie is an American, science fiction author and editor who was born in 1966. Her 2013 debut novel titled, Ancillary Justice, was credited with the 2014 Hugo Award in addition; it also received the Nebula, the BSFA, and the Arthur Clarke Awards. The sequel which she appropriately titled, Ancillary Sword was also credited with the 2015 Locus Award.

Ann grew up in St. Louis, Missouri as a fan of science fiction. During her youth, her attempts to publish her fantasy drafts were fruitless. One of her publications from that period was an unattributed romance novel titled True Confessions.

After delivering her children in the years of 1996 and 2000, the boredom and monotony of being a stay-at-home mum inspired her to write a draft of what would later come to be known as Ancillary Justice for the 2002 National Novel Writing Month. In the year 2005, Ann joined the Clarion West Writers Workshop, learning under Octavia Butler. Soon after that experience, she penned Ancillary Justice over a six year period; it was then purchased by Orbit for publication in 2012.

Ann Leckie has since published many short stories, which have been featured in fiction magazines such as Strange Horizons, Subterranean Magazine and Realms of Fantasy. Her short story “Hesperia and Glory” was featured in the 2007 edition of The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy.

Ann’s novel Ancillary Justice was the leading book of the space opera trilogy on the “Imperial Radch” story; it was printed in October of 2013 and received critical acclamation in addition to obtaining all the major English-language science fiction awards. The follow-up, Ancillary Sword, was published in October of 2014, and the conclusion to the trilogy, Ancillary Mercy, was printed in October of 2015.

Other short stories which are set in a similar universe include “She Commands Me and I Obey” and “Night’s Slow Poison” which were both published in the year 2014. In 2015, Orbit Books bought two other novels from Ann. The first which is slated for publication in the fall of 2017 has its setting in the “Imperial Radch” universe, while the second is a separate science fiction novel.

Leckie served as the editor of the science fiction online magazine Giganotosaurus from the year 2010 to 2013, and is currently editor assistant of the PodCastle podcast. She also served in the capacity of secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America from 2012 to 2013. In addition, Leckie has worked as a receptionist, a waitress, and a rodman on a land-surveying team. She currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.

Some of Ann Leckie’s Books

Ancillary Justice

This science fiction novel was originally published in October 2013. It served as Ann Leckie’s successful debut science fiction novel and also as the first installment in her space opera trilogy “Imperial Radch” story, which was followed by Ancillary Sword which was published in 2014 and Ancillary Mercy published in 2015. The novel follows the main character Breq, who is the lone survivor of a spaceship which was wrecked through treachery of the receptacle of that starship’s artificial consciousness. The reader follows Breq as she tries to get revenge on the conqueror of her own civilization.

Ancillary Justice is a space opera which is set many years in the future, where the prime galactic power of human-inhabited planets is the imperialist Radch Empire. The imperial empire uses AIs to manipulate the mechanisms of human bodies (“ancillaries”) so as to make them soldiers for its armies, even though regular humans are also soldiers. The Radchaai race who have colonized human planets do not differentiate people by gender, and Ann conveys this by the use of female personal pronouns for everybody, and also by having the Radchaai main character wrongly guess gender-specific pronouns when she has to use languages with such pronouns.

The narrative begins some years after the disappearance of the Justice of Toren, a Radch starship, the only surviving ancillary (and portion of the Justice of Toren’s consciousness), Breq, meets an officer named Seivarden, whom she had been acquainted with 1000 years earlier. The two are marooned on an ice planet, and Seivarden is fatally wounded. The plot keeps switching between two threads: Breq’s “present day” pursuit for justice for the destruction of the Justice of Toren spaceship, and flashbacks from 19 years earlier when the Justice of Toren was in orbit around the planet of Shis’urna, which was at that time being formally colonized by the Radchaai Empire. The reader ultimately finds out that the obliteration of the Justice of Toren starship was as a result of a clandestine war between two opposed threads of consciousness of the Lord of the Radch, Anaander Mianaai, who utilizes multiple synchronized bodies to rule over her extensive empire. Breq eventually associates herself with the more conciliatory aspect of Anaander Mianaai while awaiting the opportunity to exact her revenge.

Ancillary Sword

Ancillary Sword was first printed in October 2014. It is the second novel in Ann Leckie’s space opera trilogy; it is the sequel to Ancillary Justice which was published in 2013. The novel follows part of Anaander Mianaai (Lord of the Radch) personality that opposes further military expansion of the Radch Empire as she welcomes Breq into her house, assigns her as Fleet Captain, places her as commander of the warship Mercy of Kalr, and trusts her to protect the faraway Athoek system. Breq’s crew includes her old companion Seivarden and the youthful Lieutenant Tisarwat, whom Breq later identifies as a subordinate copy of Mianaai herself and therefore has her implants detached so as to permit Lieutenant Tisarwat develop an autonomous personality.

At Athoek Station, Breq seeks out Basnaaid, who is the sister of Awn. Breq loved Awn who was killed on Anaander’s orders during the time that Breq served in the ship Justice of Toren. Breq then meets Dlique who is the translator for the alien Presger, who is later killed in a fight with ancillaries of Sword of Atagaris which is the other warship on Atheok station, under the command of Captain Hetnys who is Breq’s subordinate. In an attempt to appease the powerful aliens, Hetnys and Breq begin formal mourning on the plantation of Fosyf, a renowned tea planter who holds her laborers and transportees from other Radch-colonized worlds, in conditions that are similar to slavery.

Breq survives an attempt on her life by Raughd who is Fosyf’s abusive heir. After the attempt on her life, Breq suspects that somebody kidnaps suspended transportees; she starts thinking that it might be an old warship that is seeking to restock on its subordinate crew. Hetnys and her ship try to fight against Breq while deceptively serving the other tyrant half of Anaander Mianaai, but are restrained after Breq holds Hetnys captive.

The “Imperial Radch” Empire science fiction trilogy story that is expertly narrated by Ann Leckie makes you get a sense of how complex the concepts of personhood and individuality can be and how inhibited these concepts that we take for granted can be by circumstances.

With the latest book in the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney coming out soon, we wanted to make the very first book in the series our book of the month.

Greaney is an incredible author and if you love the "lone badass" type of books then you will LOVE the Court "Gray Man" Gentry series. Read more about it.

Featured Series

It might seem like overkill, but we're giving The Gray Man series our featured series of the month.

Honestly this is such a great series and we feel not enough people read it so we want to push it. Read more about The Gray Man series and seriously if you haven't read it - start! Amazing thrillers.

Featured Author

Mark Greaney is an incredibly talented author. Not only does he write the Gray Man series however he also writes various Jack Ryan novels. Many feel he is the best writer of them and he truly is a great author. We're happy to award our author of the month to Mark Greaney.

Did You Know…

Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly Fiction Competition when he was a senior in college. He has an estimated number of over 400 million copies sold and his work has been published in more than 38 languages all over the world. His books have topped New York’s bestsellers’ list thirteen times and he also has to his credit of becoming the bestseller in countries as diverse as Sweden and Japan.